Soy subdued as bumper crop, China tensions hang over market
PARIS/SINGAPORE: Chicago soybeans slipped on Thursday, hovering near a 10-year low, as the prospect of a record US harvest and a trade standoff between Washington and Beijing continued to hang over the oilseed market.
Wheat eased after strong gains over the last two sessions on the back of tightening global supplies, while corn was almost unchanged.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade ticked down 0.2 percent to $8.28-1/2 a bushel as of 1200 GMT. Soybeans hit their lowest since December 2008 at $8.12-1/4 a bushel on Tuesday.
"We have a record crop in the United States and the trade war has reduced China's demand for soybeans, the market is unlikely to rise or sustain gains in this situation," said Phin Ziebell, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.
The American Soybean Association (ASA) will continue to lobby Washington to negotiate a solution to end the escalating trade war between China and the United States, association president John Heisdorffer said on Thursday at an industry conference.
Soybeans are the single most valuable US agricultural export to China and flows have been curbed by an extra Chinese tariff imposed in July.
The tariff measures have shifted soybean trade flows and European Union data showed the United States had become the biggest source of EU soybean imports so far this season.
However, share prices remained firm on Thursday as investors took comfort in the fact that latest tit-for-tat tariffs between the world's two largest economies were less severe than some feared.
CBOT wheat was down 0.7 percent at $5.18-3/4 a bushel, having closed up 2.4 percent on Wednesday. Corn inched up 0.1 percent to $3.46-1/4 a bushel.
The wheat market has been underpinned by crop losses in some major exporting countries, including Australia, and a run of import tenders.
Traders were awaiting a further indication of international demand from weekly US export sales data due at 1230 GMT.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, wheat, soybean and soymeal futures contracts on Wednesday and net even in soyoil futures, traders said.